The Mithraic Mystery
by Heart of Daylight
Summary: It's 2032 AD. Percy Jackson, the greatest demigod hero the world has ever known, retired to run a new camp, a mix of Roman and Greek. Most importantly, he got his wish of a peaceful retirement. Now seven other poor sods have to take over, in a mixture of humor, angst, grand adventure, and awkward situations. Oh, and there's a god that the Romans unwittingly stole from the Persians.
1. Elliot Brigwell

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

 **I'm a mess, and this was a thing that my friends and I decided that I wanted to do. Each of us has a character, and the first seven chapters of this will be the introductions of the seven main characters (the number is a coincidence), most of which mainly provide insight into the characters themselves. This particular one is when most of the characters are eight, or in the year 2024.**

 **Please enjoy my odd creation. Tell me if it's good, please. If it's not, I'm prone to extreme reactions, so I'll probably take it down immediately so that no one else has to look at it.**

* * *

The camp was an odd place, Elliot decided.

All around them, the big kids would run around and fight with weapons and climb big rocks with lava and ride horses and fight each other in the woods on Friday nights. He didn't understand most of it, but it was pretty cool. Besides, it wasn't like he had to do the things that they did, as an eight-year-old boy who had just come to the camp. Elliot was mostly just happy that they left him alone. People and talking were scary to him.

Right now, though, they were all eating dinner. To him, it was the coolest thing ever how the food just appeared out of nowhere and the drinks filled up on their own. In the back of his mind, he wondered how it worked, but at the same time, he figured that it was probably the gods looking out for their kids. He got in the line with the rest of his cabin, following them up to the fire.

When he got there, he noticed something that he hadn't before. A little girl, poking at the fire with a metal stick. When he got there, he smiled shyly at her, scraped some of his food into the fire, sent a prayer to his mother Demeter thanking her for looking over him, and went back to his spot without saying anything. His cabin mates weren't bad, nor was anyone else at the camp, he just found it really hard to make friends, even now that he was among people that were like him.

Elliot sighed and looked at his goblet. "Water," he said. Sometimes his cabin mates would tease him for always trying to be healthy, but he figured that it would pay off when he was old and still fighting and they were all fat with intestinal problems.

Just as he was about to start eating, he noticed a girl at the Dionysus table that wasn't there earlier. She was the same age as him, scowling into her plate, and sometimes shooting a glare at Mr. D. Elliot knew who he was, which confused him even more. Why would a demigod be mad at their own godly parent?

Most of dinner went by without a problem. One of the three Zeus kids kept smiling at a dryad that kept close to their table, and after watching for a while, he noticed that the tree spirit would only serve their table. He tugged on the sleeve of the sibling sitting closest to him and pointed it out to him. She laughed, telling him, "You'll understand when you're older. Lucky bastard." The last part was muttered under her breath, and he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to hear. His sister elbowed one of the other kids at their table, getting all their attention and pointing it out to them. They all laughed uproariously.

However, it was near the end of dinner that everything went off the rails. The girl that he had seen earlier had walked up to the table with Chiron and Mr. D, still sporting a full-on glare. She tapped the director's shoulder, waiting until he finished saying something to Chiron. Most of the pavilion was paying attention at that point; most demigods would not willingly approach the wine god.

When Mr. D had finished his statement, he turned to the girl. "Yes, Elizabeth?" he drawled, seemingly unconcerned. "I hope you know that just because I am your father does not mean that you can approach me at any time that you-" he was cut off by the plate of food that was thrown in his face.

Chiron smacked his palm against his face and took a deep breath. The plate slid down Dionysus's face, the mashed potatoes sticking to him. The wine god blinked, bewildered. Elliot was gaping, certain that the girl was about to combust into a pillar of purple flame. To make matter worse, the girl started screaming. "You cheating asshole! You ruined my mom's life! I hate you!" Then she started swinging tiny arms, trying to hit him with all her might.

Chiron galloped towards her, scooping her up and away from the scene. The wine god still hadn't moved, as if the event just couldn't compute in his mind. Elliot turned to the sister that he had pointed the dryad out to earlier. "What does cheating asshole mean?"

"Uh," she started, looking desperately to her siblings, who pointedly looked away. "It's… not something that you should be saying. If mom has her way, you won't learn what it means."

Elliot frowned into his now empty plate. He stood up, climbing over his seat to get out.

"Where are you going?" one of his brothers asked.

"Back to the cabin," he lied. Once he had left the pavilion in the direction of the cabins, he altered his course a bit and headed towards the Big House instead.

Elliot knocked on the door. It took a minute, but Chiron eventually answered, opening the door and looking down at the eight-year-old. He nearly lost his nerve, being confronted with an authority figure, but steeled himself. No one would want to be friends with a coward. "Is Elizabeth in here?"

Chiron sighed, but nodded.

"Can – can I see her?"

Chiron opened the door wider, a clear invitation to come in. Elliot gladly accepted, walking over the threshold. When he realized that he had no idea where the girl would be, he looked up at the centaur, embarrassment covering his face. "Um… where-"

He pointed down a hallway. Elliot smiled at him and said in a quiet voice, "Thank you."

Walking down the indicated hallway, he cheered to himself, throwing up a fist. He had successfully talked to one of the people in charge of the camp, and only stuttered a little bit! Eventually, he came to a door that he heard faint sniffling coming from. Elliot nodded to himself and opened the door.

The girl was sitting on a couch in the room. She looked up at him, wiping her eyes and glaring. He tried his best to smile, saying, "Hi, my name is Elliot."

"Who cares?" she muttered.

While a bit stung, he knew she didn't really mean it. "You looked like you could use a friend."

"And who would want to be friends with a runt like you?"

That hurt. Tears stung his own eyes, but he pressed on anyways. "I was hoping you would."

She gave a watery laugh. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Too much. But not this time. I'm going to be your friend, whether you like it or not."

The girl was fighting off a smile. She wiped her eyes, trying to conceal it under her arm. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Elliot walked over to the couch, jumping up on it next to her. "If Mr. D doesn't annihilate you."

"That's a big word."

Elliot tried not to look too proud of himself. "I know a lot of big words. I'll tell you them if you want."

She nodded, smiling at him. "I think that would be fun."

"So, what's your name?" he already knew, but he didn't want to seem creepy. It was always weird when someone knew your name without them telling you.

"Liz. Liz Moore."


	2. N'Baki

The forge blazed with a fire more intense than anything possible in mortal forges.

N'Baki was pleased that she had modified the camp half-blood shirts that she had been given; she probably would have died from heat without the cut that she had given them, exposing her stomach. She had traded out her usual baggy sweatpants for shorts, covered by the usual apron that the children of Hephaestus used.

Her current project was a spear for her friend Elliot, who was desperately in need of a weapon that wasn't a sword. No matter what he said, he just wasn't cut out for it. His fourteenth birthday was coming up soon anyways, so she could justify this as a birthday gift.

Just for him, she had drawn out patterns for corn and wheat crops to put on the shaft. She grinned to herself, knowing how he would sigh exasperatedly when he saw them. Right now, though, she just had an unadorned square rod of celestial bronze, ready to be heated up and pounded into shape. N'baki slipped on her gloves, enchanted to protect her from heat far beyond what cloth gloves should allow. Her own heat resistance as a child of the forge god also contributed to her resilience.

She picked up the rod and gently placed it into the white flames in the forge, idly grabbing a mask and shoulder pads from one of the shelves. ' _Don't want a repeat of the apprentice mistakes, do we?_ ' she thought as she unconsciously the numb webwork of a near decade old burn on her left shoulder. While she had an incredible resistance to burns, molten metal put out a little too much heat.

Once the rod was hot enough to be malleable, she pulled it out of the forge and clamped it down, so she could use both hands. Celestial bronze was a strong metal, easier to work with two arms on the hammer and self-turning equipment.

Right as N'baki brought the hammer down, a hapless camper walked into the forge. She yelped when the hammer crashed down on the rod, throwing sparks everywhere. The camper quickly backed out of the door to avoid the sparks, and N'baki sighed, knowing that she would have to interrupt herself to talk to her.

She stepped out, asking, "Hey, did you need something?"

The girl nodded. "My name is Ava Lewis, the other campers told me to come to N'baki to get outfitted?" She phrased it as if it was a question.

The Kikuyu girl grinned. She always loved getting people gear; every time they came back to her saying that her gear saved their lives, pride filled her, and it made her work that much harder. However, she was in the middle of something. "How about you come back in a few hours? I'm in the middle of a project, and I would like to finish it before the month is over."

"Okay. When do you want me to come back?" Ava asked, tilting her head. N'baki marveled once more at the size of everyone around her; they were always so small. Or perhaps she was just large. That was what everyone always told her.

"I'll send someone to get you when I need you." The girl nodded, then turned and walked out the door, offering a small wave as she left. N'Baki waved back and retreated back into the forge room to continue her project.

It wasn't going to be a normal spear; Greek spears were good for what they were made for, but ultimately outdated against most monsters. The spears that were useful were all modified in some way, and from N'Baki's boundless creativity, she was able to create a design of her own. Hunting spears were still used by thrill seekers today, and what were monsters but beasts to be hunted? Granted, sometimes they had acid breath, were several times bigger than a demigod, almost always stronger than the hunter, along with potentially hundreds of other advantages, but really, what's going to get back up from a severed spinal cord?

The spear had a wide head, and was relatively short for a spear, six feet long, whereas most Greek spears (specifically the Dory) were between seven and nine feet. However, this spear would be far more effective in close combat and would have a couple of her own personal modifications to make it even lighter and faster than any of the other lesser spears.

Let it never be said that she didn't care for her friends.

After a long time of simply pounding the rod with her hammer as it spun, the glow of the superheated Celestial Bornze faded from a bright white to a dull red. N'Baki picked up the nearly spherical rod, ready to shove it back into the blazing forge, when someone opened the door to the forge room again.

Looking up, N'Baki recognized Elliot. She grinned to herself, knowing that he wouldn't be able to recognize what she was doing, so there was no reason to hide it. She pointed the glowing rod in his face. "Shouldn't you be tending to the fields or something right now?"

The boy rapidly threw his hands up and backpedaled. "Gods, N'Baki, we talked about this!"

Her grin turned sheepish and she lowered the rod. "Right, don't point things that shouldn't be pointed with. Sorry."

Elliot rolled his eyes. "You're going to be the death of me."

"No, that would be Liz."

"…Can't argue with that." He eyed the rod with much less fear. "What are you working on?"

"You'll see when it's finished."

"Is that why Ava came back to me telling me that you were busy?"

N'Baki took a moment to respond, situating the rod in the blazing fires of the furnace. "You're the one who sent her to me?"

"Yeah. Showed up yesterday, remember? Hermes claimed her at the campfire." Elliot leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

"Nah, I wasn't there. Wanted to go to bed early so I could start this earlier." N'Baki turned her full attention to her friend once she sure that the rod would heat correctly.

Elliot nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember. You missed breakfast too, along with lunch, which is why I'm here." He reached into his coat, pulling out a large paper bag. "I really wish that you would listen to us when we tell you to eat something before you fall into your furnace."

N'Baki had already ripped open the bag, scarfing down the sandwich inside. "Honestly forgot I was hungry," she said around the food.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth." Elliot sighed, putting a hand to his head. "I swear, you're all children."

With the sandwich finished, she pulled out the bag of chips and threw one at him. "I'm older than you, you baby. And taller."

He sent her a sour look. She laughed, knowing how much it annoyed him that she was taller. "I'm still taller than Liz," he said.

"Not much of an accomplishment."

His head tilted, considering her words. "Yeah. Still, it's gotta count for something."

"Not when she's never going to hit five feet."

"Yeah, but she's got a damn good position to nail our shins."

N'Baki shrugged, holding out the bag for him. Elliot rolled his eyes but took it from her anyways. "I even clean up after you. At this rate, you're all going to have to start calling me mom."

"Already got a mom, and she's way better than you."

"Fair."


	3. Ava Lewis

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Amber eyes tracked their quarry as they moved across the field. A group of Aphrodite campers, bubbling over whatever inane subject had caught their vapid attention this time. She waited for them to pass around the corner in the mess hall that she was waiting next to, ready to launch her plan.

As soon as they walked around, she took a step forward and slapped her palm across the face of the leading girl, a tall blonde. The other girls nearly tripped over themselves out of shock, barely stabilizing themselves.

"I can't believe you!" she yelled, pleased to catch them off guard. "Cheating on me with Kelly? I trusted you, I loved you! And you don't even care!"

The girl she slapped tried to say something back. "No, Ava, please, just-"

"Just what? Do you have some excuse? I'm sorry I wasn't good enough for you to love!"

The other girls were looking between the two, shocked, but some of the other people around them were glaring at the lead girl. Nicole was the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, and Ava's soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. Ava had seen her with Kelly, a child of Hecate, two days ago, and had been waiting for the perfect moment to spring this on her.

Ava gave a bitter laugh, drooping her head forward and letting her black hair get in her eyes. "I guess the Aphrodite cabin is getting back to their old ways, huh? Is heartbreaking the initiation again?"

The campers around them started murmuring, and Ava saw several of them glaring at Nicole and shaking their heads. Inwardly, she smiled. It was going exactly as she planned.

The Aphrodite girl next to Nicole spoke up. "No, Ava, it isn't. It's very much against how we do things now." She was now openly glaring at her counselor, crossing her arms and deliberately stepping away from her.

Nicole was now looking around wildly, seeing everyone glare at her. She looked to the other Aphrodite camper for help, her green eyes pleading, but the camper mirrored her friend and took a step back. The counselor was now very much alone, and tears were beginning to prickle at the corner of her eyes.

Ava had been waiting for this moment for months, since before she even started dating the girl. She was an obstacle and needed to be removed. This had all been planned out months ago, once she realized that Kelly was crushing on Nicole, and Nicole had similar feelings for Kelly. Before they could discover their own feelings, though, Ava had swooped in. She had subtly pushed them together as she was dating Nicole, waiting until they finally got careless enough to give her an excuse to bring down righteous fury upon both of them.

Chiron trotted over. "Ms. Lewis, is there an issue?"

"Nicole cheated on me. With Kelly." Ava's mental smirk widened, she hadn't planned on getting Chiron in on this, but it could end up even better if she could wrangle his unknowing help.

The centaur frowned. "Ms. Kingston, is this true?"

Nicole had tears streaming down her face but nodded dejectedly. The watching campers' whispers and murmurs increased in volume, now practically shouting. Chiron sighed, and beckoned for her to follow him. He started trotting off in the direction of the Big House, Nicole trailing after him.

Several of the campers came over to Nicole, and one of the Aphrodite campers put her hand on Ava's shoulder. Internally, she wore a grimace of disgust, but outside, she let tears prickle her eyes. "Do you need anything? Do you want a hug, or some ice cream?"

Ava shook her head dejectedly. "No, I'm just going to go take a nap in my cabin." She took a step back, and two of her cabin mates came up on either side of her. She wanted to tell them to piss off, so she could bask in the light of her satisfaction and accomplishment but kept up her act of a broken-hearted sixteen-year-old girl. It took a few minutes get through the field, and the boys at either shoulder said nothing. Ava wondered why they were there, if they weren't going to do anything. Were people so useless that just being next to people made them feel better?

Once at the door to the Hermes cabin, she made sure to give the two boys a watery smile. "Thank you for helping me back here."

They nodded. "It always sucks to break up with someone you love, but it sucks even more when they cheat on you. You need anything, just ask," one of them said. Ava nodded, walking inside. Once she was sure that no one else was there, she let a vicious smile crawl across her face.

Not only had she most definitely removed Nicole from her counselor position, Kelly would also be ostracized now. Everyone felt bad for her, which would make them treat her like a queen for as long as she could milk the act without it getting annoying. Even further than that, she now had a good excuse for not wanting to be around the idiots that this camp was full of.

She was getting even closer to her own position of power as counselor. The current Hermes counselor, Mordecai, was blinded by emotion. Always trying to be everyone's friend, poking his nose into people's business, getting them to laugh with seemingly harmless but incredibly demeaning pranks. Ever since he had covered her with paint when she first came to camp, she had known that she would eventually destroy him, and to do that, she needed to get rid of all of his friends.

A small slight, some might say, but those people were naïve idiots. The prank had obviously diminished her respect before she could even get any, and no one made her look like an idiot, especially those lesser than her. Which was everyone, really. Not even the Athena children were as smart as her, and she regularly beat the Ares children in combat. The only one who could beat her was that stupid Dionysus counselor, Liz. Her father was the god of drunkards and crazy people, what business did she have wielding a sword in the first place? She obviously cheated.

If in the process of destroying the idiotic counselors she got enough power that no one would question her, and the loyalty and command of her cabin, then she wouldn't complain. It was about time someone competent gained power in this useless camp.

* * *

 **A/N: Did I get psychopathy naturally enough?**


	4. Liz Moore

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Dirt sprayed out of the ground as the weed was pulled out of the ground.

Liz shook the weed slightly, dislodging the dirt from the roots and getting it back to the ground. Her brown hair was pulled into a bun behind her, so it wouldn't get dirty as she tended to the strawberry field, but a few strands had dislodged to get in front of her eyes. She blew them out of the way as she stood up, smiling despite the sun in her eyes and sweat beading her forehead.

"Liz!" someone yelled from behind her. She swung her head around, finding a taller, dark-skin boy cupping his hands around his mouth and calling to her. She stood up, brushing the dirt off the knees of her canvas pants and pulling off her gloves before walking over to him.

"What's up, Jalen?" she asked, looking up at him.

"The Demeter kids are attacking your cabin's kids near the Volleyball court. Don't know what the problem is, just figured that I should probably go find you."

She sighed, thanked him, and then ran for the aforementioned location. She made a slight detour to the Dionysus cabin, quickly grabbing her short sword, and belting it on as she left the cabin. Chiron trotted up to her, asking, "Is there a problem, Liz?"

"Apparently a fight between my siblings and Demeter's kids. Could you help?"

Chiron sighed. "Absolutely." He offered her a hand to get on to his back, which as a girl an inch under five feet, she gladly took. As soon as she was situated, Chiron set off at a gallop to the Volleyball Court, getting there in less than a minute. Liz quickly jumped off his back, running towards the quarreling teenagers and yelling, "Stop!"

Chiron got between the two parties, forcing them to stop. Liz held her hands up, placating her cabin-mates before turning to the Demeter kids. At their forefront was Elliot Brigwell, who was signaling her over. She looked to her siblings, said, "Behave," and then walked off to the side with Elliot.

"What happened?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"They were playing together and one of the balls nailed Imani in the head. Your kids got mad, started attacking mine, mine fought back, and now we're here."

"Did anyone bother apologizing?"

"Not sure. Chiron's probably working that out, though." The two turned to the group of sheepish looking campers. Chiron was in front of them, holding a ten-year-old black girl in his arms who was cradling her head. He trotted side to side in front of them, lecturing them on the importance of relationships and being nice.

Liz rolled her eyes. "I love my idiots, but that's all going in one ear and out the other. Remind me why I became a cabin counsellor at fifteen?"

"Probably for the same reason I did at sixteen." She looked at the dark-haired counselor, raising an eyebrow. Elliot shrugged. "No one else was going to do it."

She snorted. "Yeah, that's essentially it. You'll take care of your people, I'll get mine?"

"Y'know, I was never planning on being a teenage dad."

Liz laughed. As soon as Chiron left with Imani, they departed, waving for their groups to follow them back to their respective cabins. The Dionysus cabin walked in silence, several of the campers glaring at the ground passing beneath them.

Once inside the cabin, Liz closed the door behind her and stood in front of it. She stared several of them in the eyes before saying, "Really?"

"They just beamed her in the head!" One of them said.

"Did they apologize, Norman?"

"Well…"

Liz sighed, bringing up her hands to massage her temples. One of them made to say something, but she held a hand up. "I was in the strawberry field. You all know that my field time is sacred. You couldn't have waited to do this later?"

None of them caught her eyes. She nodded. "Right. Norman, Shannon, John, you're on stable duty tomorrow. Annalise, Taylor, Nikki, you're on kitchen duty tomorrow." They all nodded sullenly. "Now can you tell me why you actually attacked them?"

Nikki muttered, "Jackson said my mom was a slut for having two demigod children with different parents."

Liz grunted. "I get it. In that case, I would've decked him. However, I'm a counselor, you guys aren't. Next time, come to me, so I can glue his mouth shut. Or tell Elliot. He'd probably do it for you, you know how he is."

They all nodded again, a little less sullenly. After another minute of silence, the brunette rolled her eyes and said, "What are you still doing in here? You guys are on duty tomorrow, not today. Get out of here."

Norman and Taylor vaulted down from the top bunks, and she opened the door for them to dash out. They were closely followed by Annalise, and then Shannon and John walked out at a leisurely pace. Nikki lazily raised a hand, saying, "It's naptime for me."

Liz walked out, closing the door behind her. Elliot was still in his cabin, probably chewing his people out for their own part. One of the rocking chairs covered in soft leaves was beckoning for her, so she took her rightful place in it and grabbed one of the books resting in a pile next to it. Opening the book, she noted that it was a Sherlock tale translated into ancient Greek and settled in to wait for Elliot to come out of his own cabin.

She managed to get through the first three chapters before the Demeter cabin door opened, and several sheepish looking campers walked out. One looked incensed, making Liz narrow her eyes. Finally, Elliot walked out, an exasperated expression clear through his glasses. When he spotted her, he walked over to her, and she set down her book. Elliot leaned on the rails next to her rocking chair and waited for her to talk.

"You hear what Jackson said?"

"It's been relayed to me by Trevon. My people had no idea that was the reason for the start of the fight, and they're going to apologize to your people. Especially Jackson, after which he will spend the rest of the week in the big house, waiting on your dad."

Liz winced. "Harsh."

"Deserved."

"Yeah, you're right."

They sat in a comfortable silence, watching the other campers go about their business. Eventually, Elliot said, "Never actually thought I'd be in charge when I first got here."

"Neither did I. Quite the entrance, though, wasn't it?"

He snorted. "You called Mr. D a cheating asshole and tried to deck him once you figured out who he was. Which was at dinner. In front of the entire camp and the dryads waiting on us. Not something easy to forget."

She shrugged. "He had it coming."

"Yeah, most of them do." The sky rumbled above them, and several campers in the area reflexively looked around to find her.

Liz yelled, "Wasn't me this time!" She got several returning snorts, rolling eyes, and calls of "Sure it wasn't!"

"Honestly, I'm surprised that neither of us have been struck by lightning yet," Liz muttered.

"I think they got bored when Mr. Jackson left to go run Camp Olympus, and we fill the gap. The sky's probably constantly rumbling over there."

"Percy," Liz reminded him, waggling her finger at him. "He hates being called Mr. Jackson."

Elliot groaned, unconsciously touching his sternum. "Yeah, I remember. Now I mostly do it to spite him."

"We've never quite gotten a sword teacher better than him."

"You're more than what we need. Seriously. You whacking our butts to remind us to keep our guard up is a bit much."

"Percy would've just laid you guys out flat."

Elliot rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to respond when the dinner horn sounded. They both shared a look, Elliot getting his weight back on his feet and offering a hand to pull her out of the chair, which she graciously accepted. "Another day conquered," she said.

"Don't jinx it." Elliot narrowed his eyes at her. "It's not over yet."

Liz stuck her tongue off before running off the mess hall.


	5. Valentine Morgan

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

The world was a difficult place, as Valentine was all too aware.

Especially when one is being accosted by a satyr, of whom he had known for several years. He didn't particularly like the satyr, and the feeling was mutual. Of course, it was mostly the satyr's fault, who didn't know how to let go.

"What about when the hydra attacks, huh?! How are you going to save your family then?" Mikey, as the satyr called himself, yelled.

"Jesus, Mikey, I've never been attacked by a monster before and you jump straight to the damn hydra? Who's taking a leap now?"

"You're taking a leap of faith, endangering your family by not going to camp on the principle that you haven't been attacked before!" He was in Valentine's face now, who did not appreciate the close proximity. The people around them were starting to take notice, but they probably weren't hearing the same things that the two arguing were.

Valentine ran a hand through his blue-dyed hair frustratingly. Three years, and the satyr still _wouldn't shut up._ Their school was used to their arguing by now, dismissing it and going back to their lunches. He started muttering to himself in Spanish. "Mama me da fuerza."

"You deal with me? I have to deal with your scrawny ass endangering everyone out here!"

Valentine raised his eyebrow. "Whose ass is scrawny again?"

Of course, everything went wrong in that moment.

The wall of the cafeteria exploded, alarms suddenly going off across the school as dust and debris flew everywhere. Over the screaming and coughing of the other students, Valentine heard hissing from his new position next to Mikey under the table. He fixed a glare on the satyr, growling as quietly as he could, "Not. A. Word."

The satyr's expression was somewhere between terrified and a smug 'I told you so' smirk. He bleated lowly, his body shaking nervously.

The sprinklers turned on, registering the breaking of the wall as an explosion and quickly got rid of the dust. Valentine peeked out from under the table that they had taken shelter under and managed to catch several wet heads like those of a lizard crossed with a snake attached to a single body that took up about half the room. He sighed to himself. Mikey would never let this go.

Still, though, he now had to do something so that no one would die.

He pulled out a celestial bronze Bowie knife, gifted to him by his mother. That still gave him no idea how he would use it effectively against a hydra of all things, but at least he was armed. That gave him confidence, enough to start formulating a plan. He scanned the area, taking note of how the sprinklers were still going. Even if Valentine could start a fire, it would be useless. So, he had to take out the hydra without messing with its heads, which was much more difficult than it sounded.

Eventually, he tapped Mikey's shoulder. He gestured for him to lean in, so he could speak without the hydra hearing them as it sniffed around the area. "How long can you distract it for?"

The satyr took a quick glimpse at the hydra before quickly ducking back into cover. "It only has three heads, so a couple minutes at best. What's your plan?"

"I'm gonna get under it and get directly at the heart. Hopefully, it won't just sit down and crush me."

Mikey thought it over for a minute, but quickly nodded when a student screamed, only to be silenced by a hiss. "Can't think of anything better quickly enough. I'll do my best."

Mikey waited for Valentine to get close behind the hydra before he leapt out of hiding, yelling and waving his arms around. One head immediately lashed towards him, only for the satyr to put his goat legs to use and plant a hoof one its face to jump out of the way. The giant lizard hissed angrily at him, the other two heads rearing back.

However, Valentine was now close enough to dive under its large body, where he briefly panicked. _'Where the fuck is its heart?!'_ After a second, he simply stabbed upwards with as much force as possible, hoping that he would take out something important enough to dust it.

Valentine forgot that as a demigod, he inherited the luck of all demigods, and the hydra simply shrieked in pain, flailing its head around. He only briefly had time to scream "Oh shit!" and roll out from under it before it came down with enough force to crack the cafeteria floor. As he pushed himself to his feet, he came face to face with all three heads shaking with pain and anger. Before a chair smacked into one of them with an audible crack. One of the other heads turned to investigate, while the final head whipped towards him.

Valentine bent to the side, narrowly avoiding the head before plunging his knife into the top of it as it drew back. The head went limp. He blinked twice, pulled out his knife, and said, "Huh."

"Don't just stand there, stab it again!" Mikey yelled at him.

Valentine shook himself off. "On it!"

He pulled himself up on one of the cafeteria tables, idly wondering where the other students went. Deciding that he didn't care at the moment, he took a running jump on to the back of the hydra and straddled it like a bull before he started stabbing down into it indiscriminately.

It immediately started roaring and shrieking, trying to buck him off and flailing its two remaining heads at him as best as it could while the third lay limp on the floor. In response, Valentine pressed himself against its back and started stabbing its necks, careful not to cut them off.

After the sixth stab, another head fell limp, and it wasn't long before the last followed suit. Valentine smacked into the floor when the beast turned to golden dust beneath him and lay there for a moment.

He was dimly aware of Mikey coming to sit next to him but didn't have enough energy to do anything about it. They both took a moment to breathe, before Mikey said, "I told you so."

"Fuck you."


	6. Arena

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Another monster, another pile of dust.

That's how it was here, every time they let him out of his cell. They would throw him in an arena, monstrous yells and screams and laughter all around him coming from spectators hidden from his sight. Across from him was always some monster or another, or entire groups of creatures with the only objective in their mind being his death. He planted his Stygian Iron bastard sword in the ground, leaning on its hilt and breathing slowly out of his mouth. His shoulders heaved, carrying his cuirass with them. His armor was no worse for wear despite this fight, but it wasn't over yet. His eyes flicked around him, trying to figure out what was different this time.

Normally, whenever he finished a fight, gas would flood the area, knocking him out. When he woke back up, he would be back in the cell that had been his home since he was nine. He had no idea how old he was now, just that he had grown significantly larger and stronger than he used to be. At the very least, he was well-fed and still mostly sane. Probably because they didn't want their prime source of entertainment to be anything less than in perfect fighting condition.

The ground rumbled slightly, not enough for anyone not attuned with it to notice, but almost a beacon to a geokinetic. Pushing himself off his sword, the boy ripped it out of the ground and stomped his bare foot into the ground instead. The earth rumbled around him, though it did not disturb the arena's foundations. As far as he could tell, the arena itself was floating off the ground and not in contact with anything else, because the monsters only cheered more loudly rather than shout in panic if he tried to break out.

The monsters attempting to burrow beneath him, several myrmekes, quickly dug themselves out of the ground. The boy narrowed his eyes, noting the golden dust on them. He had gotten a couple, but there were still seven left. This was an old fight, him against myrmekes. It must've been a slow day in the arena.

As the first came close to him, he swiped his sword forward, bisecting its head horizontally. It exploded into dust, which he grabbed a handful of and tossed in into the eyes of the next one. While ants don't blink, it did block its vision enough that it didn't dodge his sword stabbing directly into its brain. It hadn't even completely turned to dust by the time that he had jumped onto the back of the next ant, driving his sword down through its abdomen. Before the next myrmeke could get to him, the shadows beneath it rose in the shape of tentacles and wrapped around it, flinging it into another ant and crashing both into the wall of the arena.

Myrmekes were always a boring fight. They didn't think for themselves, they never said anything, and there were never any tactics beyond 'trap the target under bodies and bite him to death.' As such, he made quick work of the other two, decapitating one and cutting the legs off the other before he bifurcated it. He held out his hand, darkness stretching out of his shadow and dragging one of the final myrmekes into his waiting sword. The last myrmeke scuttled at him without changing its course or caring for its fallen comrades, allowing him to roll his eyes and simply plunge his sword through it before it even got near him.

As he looked around at the piles of dust that were all that were left of his opponents, he sighed and prepared himself for the gas to knock him out again. Instead of gas, though, the wall behind him split, hidden, rusty gears cranking noisily. The boy spun around, his sharp eyes glimpsing the cable bridge that led out of fog to the section of the wall that had opened. Before he could study it any further, though, something else caught his vision.

A bright light pierced the darkness. The bridge began to dip, something of considerable weight forcing it to bend. He caught sight of a giant form, larger than even the cyclopes that he had been forced to fight. As the light got closer, it began to hurt to look at. Heat was filling the arena, and the boy began to sweat. He readied himself to fight a fire elemental, though he knew none that hurt to look at.

He discovered very quickly that it was no fire elemental.

As soon as the armor-clad giant stepped into the arena, the wall wheeled shut behind him. Fire poured across him, the flames licking out of his armor and helmet with a light so harsh the boy could barely look at him. He wasn't even sure if he had any skin, or he was just fire. He stood tall enough to be three of the boy standing on each other's shoulders.

The giant spoke, power reflected in his voice. "I detest having to take this smaller form, but I would not have to put in the slightest effort without it. Hear me, demigod. I am Hyperion, the Titan of Light. You are the myrmeke to me, boy. Nothing more than an ant to be crushed."

The boy felt cold despite the heat. This would be his end, and he knew it very well. He wasn't about to go down without a fight, though. Wordlessly, he crouched into a position across from the titan, his sword pointed directly at him, parallel to the ground. He narrowed his eyes, concentrating as much as he could to bring out the coldness in his soul to counteract the heat.

He could not bring out enough to do anything to the titan, but it was enough to force the heat to die down around him so that he could breathe. The titan nodded. "So be it, demigod." A giant golden sword appeared in the titan's hand, pointed down at the boy.

A second later, the boy dashed forward, his eyes on the titan's sword. As soon as he brought it down, he dodged to the side, but did not account for the fire and light bursting from the impact. Temporarily blinded, the boy felt Hyperion's foot crash into his midsection, throwing him airborne for a few seconds until he crashed into the arena.

Momentarily, everything went black. He pushed himself up as soon as he had control of his body again, immediately diving to the side to avoid the titan's thrown sword.

He ran around the titan, stopping in his tracks when the titan pointed his hand. Energy exploded in front of him, throwing him on his back. He rolled to the side, noting that the audience seemed to be laughing and jeering at him now.

He was deprived of his greatest weapons: speed and the shadows. No demigod would ever be stronger than most of the monsters they faced, but normally they would be faster. He was not faster than a titan, especially one with power over light. That left the boy with one option.

He jumped to the side again, avoiding another burst of energy. He watched as the titan went to retrieve his sword and knew that he would have some time to try and enact his plan. He knelt down on the ground, closing his eyes and thanking whoever was listening that the titan considered him nothing more than an amusing toy.

His shadow grew darker, and as the titan pulled out his sword, his light began to dull slightly. He turned, seeing the boy kneeling with his sword in front of him. Hyperion scoffed, asking, "Do you think that I will spare you if you acknowledge my majesty? You were doomed from the moment that you arrived here, boy."

He said nothing, continuing to concentrate. "Have you forgotten how to speak, boy?" the titan mocked. "Perhaps I should teach you how to scream instead." Hyperion's thundering steps came closer, his sword dragging across the ground. The closer he got to the boy, the more his light faded. However, he did not notice; not until it was too late. He stood in front of the boy, raising his sword in preparation for the kill, when he noticed that the arena had grown dark. "What is-"

The boy's eyes snapped open, and he lunged forward with his sword, thrusting it through a chink in the titan's leg armor between his foot and leg. The titan roared in pain, bringing down his sword, but noticeably slower now that his light had dulled. He stepped to the side, the sword passing an inch in front of him and burying into the rock of the arena's ground. Taking another step forward as the titan focused on ripping his sword out of the ground, the boy shoved his sword into the back of the titan's knee, drawing a fountain of golden ichor and a pained yell. Hyperion fell to one knee, lashing out with his arm behind him and successfully hitting the boy.

He felt himself fly into the arena wall, sure that something cracked when his side impacted with it. When he opened his eyes, he was greeting with a titan blazing brighter and hotter than he had been when he walked into the arena. He quickly closed his eyes again, not wanting to be blindly, but let out a yell of pain when the titan's burning hand wrapped around his midsection and lifted him in the air.

Hyperion growled at him, lifting the boy to his face. "Before, I was going to kill you, relieve you of your pain and servitude." He clenched his hand tighter, making the boy yell in pain as his armor crumpled and he felt his skin begin to blister. "Now, though, I will teach you a lesson."

The boy didn't even have time to question what the lesson would be before the titan's other burning hand was on the right side of his face.

Unimaginable pain beyond anything he had ever felt before seeped across his face, making him scream loudly enough to be heard over the roaring and yelling of the monstrous audience. After several seconds, Hyperion dropped him to the ground, where he folded into a ball, whimpering and trying to cover the blackened and bubbling skin with cold hands. The titan smirked, glad that he had shrunken the hand down to human size before putting it on him.

"You will bear that scar for the rest of your life, demigod. Let it be a reminder that you are nothing but a plaything; amusement for those greater than you."

The boy barely heard him, but he committed it to memory even as the wall wheeled back open and gas flowed through the arena.

He held on for several seconds, glaring hatefully at the titan's back as he walked out. In those seconds, he made himself a promise.

 _I will send you Tartarus myself, titan. Even if I must wait a thousand years to do it. This I swear on the river Styx._

The world around them rumbled ominously, and the monsters paused their cheering for a moment. Hyperion even turned back to him, watching him closely as the wall closed.

The boy made sure that he could look in his eyes before the gas took him.

* * *

 **A/N: You can probably tell who his parent is. He won't be joining the others until much later.**


	7. Willow Kate-Evans

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"Hey, are you Willow Kate-Evans?"

A short girl with hair the color of rust looked up from her lunch, swallowing a bite of her sandwich and pulling a headphone out of her ear. Before her were two girls, one even shorter than her with brown hair and a taller blonde. She smiled at them. "That's me. Do you have papers for me to review?"

They slid into the empty seats across from her, and she set aside her pencil and drawing tablet. Willow was in an emptier room of her school with a few small tables scattered about. As one of the few people in the National English Honor Society who volunteered to tutor, she very rarely had company during lunch. The shorter girl held out her hand. "I'm Liz, and this is Helen. We're here for something a bit different than tutoring."

Willow raised her eyebrows. "These are tutoring hours, so if this can wait, I'd prefer to talk to you about it later. There are some people who need help."

Helen crossed her arms and grumbled, "This is a waste of time. We should just bag her."

Willow grew alarmed at the declaration, most certainly not meant for her to hear. Her eyes flicked to Liz, who elbowed the girl. "Not now, Helen," she growled back under her breath. She smiled at Willow again. "That would be fine. Could we meet you at a restaurant or somewhere else after school, then?"

Willow mulled over the question before answering. "Sure. How about the Wendy's down by the library?"

Liz nodded. "That sounds great," she said, standing from her seat. Helen followed her, though now openly glaring at Willow. "I'll see you then. Thank you!"

Willow smiled and nodded, not at all intending on meeting with them.

After her lunch, she found her friend Marcus in her next class. Sitting down at the screen-desk next to him, she muttered, "Can you check for two students in the roster? A brunette named Liz and a blonde named Helen. Liz was under five feet and Helen was a little under six."

He nodded, tapping away at the screen of the desk for a minute while the other students meandered in before turning to her again. "Can't find either of them. They trespassing?"

"I think so. Thanks for telling me." She slid back into her own desk, pushing away her worry and feelings to concentrate on the lesson. Poetry, she was happy to note. It was one of the few things not affected by her dyslexia, and she seemed to have a special talent for it.

The next few hours of Willow's school day passed uneventfully, and she waved goodbye to her friends as she got in her car to go home. Back in 2026, they had finally developed self-driving cars, heavily relieving her because it meant that she no longer had to stress about driving a two-ton death machine.

Very pointedly ignoring the Wendy's meetup, she set the car to go directly to her house. On the way there, she watched the city of Savannah pass her by, taking enjoyment in seeing people living their lives. Idly, she thought about how she could put the constancy of life despite technological advancements in perspective, before going over the homework that she had today in her mind.

Eventually, she pulled up to her house, waiting for the silent garage door to wheel open before parking her car inside. Once inside, Willow yelled her customary, "Mom, I'm home!" deposited her backpack at the stairs, emptied her lunchbox, and put it on the counter to be re-filled the next morning. She grabbed her backpack again and walked up the stairs to her room, opening the door to her lightly colored room, tossing her backpack next to the rolling chair and computer-desk before sitting in the chair as if it were a throne.

For her, it might as well have been. Here, she created worlds, influenced emotions, and brought the future in which she would rule the world ever closer. Of course, those were all fantastical terms for writing books that she would never publish, putting poetry on the internet anonymously, and doing homework.

To the third end, she pulled the school-issued data tablets out of her backpack, groaning at the amount of math that she would have to get through before she could get to her other hobby; the flute. A band kid she was not, but she was considerably better than most of the flute-players in the school band, despite only picking up the instrument three years ago.

Once Willow had gotten through a tortuous half of her math sheet and burning through three-quarters of an hour, a sudden stray thought occurred to her: her mother had never answered her greeting. She frowned, trying to dismiss the thought, but it buzzed through her mind like one of the fruit flies that infested their basement. Sighing, she decided that with her concentration shot like this, there was no way that she was going to be able to continue doing the quadratic equation by hand.

Walking out of her room, the first thing that she noticed was the lack of light in the master bedroom. "Mom?" she called out, assuming she was downstairs.

No one replied.

Willow was starting to grow nervous, despite knowing that there was likely a perfectly reasonable explanation. Her ADHD told her otherwise, though, and she would not be able to convince herself of that explanation until she found her mother. Creeping down the stairs, she silently walked into the kitchen, grabbing one of the larger knives to bolster her confidence. The rust-haired girl tried calling to her mother again. "Mom, you down here?"

Again, no one replied. Frowning, she opened the door to her basement, the slab of wood swinging open on silent hinges. "Mom, where are you?" the basement was the only place in the house left, but it was also the least likely place her mother would be. Whenever she asked her mom why she didn't like the basement, she waved her off, saying something about how she just found it uncomfortable.

Carefully stepping down into the basement, Willow listened for her mother. She had an unnaturally powerful sense of hearing, good enough to hear people's breathing and heartbeats.

When she heard two heartbeats, she immediately flung herself down the stairs, her knife held out. No one messed with her mother.

The sight that greeted her was incredibly odd. Her mother's body lay on the ground, unconscious for the time being. A headless and shirtless body stood over her, but at the sound of Willow crashing down the stairs, it turned itself completely around and stared at her. With the eyes in its chest.

Its eyebrows lifted, shifting the skin on its shoulders back. "Ah, you must be Willow Kate-Evans," it said in a flat but polite tone. "I apologize for harming your mother; she is only a mortal and would have been left alone if she had not gotten in the way. Now, would you be so kind as to come over here, so I may kill you?"

"What in the actual hell?" was Willow's courteous response. The creature remained still, watching her impassively. It occurred to her that it was actually waiting for an answer, and she glared at it. "No, I'm not going to let you kill me!"

The creature sighed. "You, ma'am, are most impolite. It is a shame that you cannot learn manners before I kill you." Suddenly, it lurched at her, throwing a fist at her face.

Willow's instincts took over completely, forcing her to duck and narrowly dodging the fist that took a giant hole out of the wall. Alarmed, she looked wide-eyed at the strange creature, which was winding up for a kick. Before it could launch its foot, though, Willow stabbed forward with her knife into the creature's left eye.

It shouted in pain, throwing a hand over the eye and furiously rubbing it. Willow noted that there was nothing on the blade, as if it didn't even cut the creature. A second later, when it blearily opened the now red eye and glared at her, she confirmed that it had done nothing more than poke the creature as if it were a blunt tool.

However, the rust-haired girl was unable to find a solution, since the creature launched another fist at her. Willow leaned to the side and was immediately grabbed by its other hand. The creature threw her against a wall, and she grunted in pain as she felt the wall crater around her back. It cocked its fist back, saying, "And now I must say good afternoon. May you have a good afterlife."

In desperation, Willow squeezed her eyes shut and threw her hands up in front of her face. She heard the creature shout, but no blow landed. Cautiously, she opened her eyes, and was greeted with the sight of the creature covering its eyes with its hands, rubbing at them and yelling. Briefly, she looked at her hands, and saw them faintly glowing. Once again, she was interrupted before she could think by her basement door being knocked inwards.

The two girls from earlier, Liz and Helen, stood in the doorway. Liz was carrying a short bronze sword, while Helen carried a golden sword she recognized as a gladius. Her eyebrows lifted nearly into her hairline, because both of them had on what looked to be pieces of armor covering their chests, shoulders, and forearms, but each wore different materials. Helen wore metal, while Liz was clad in leather.

Liz smiled at her. "I should've known better than to think that you would actually meet with us. That was my fault though. Helen, can you deal with the blemmyae?" The blonde grumbled but dashed forward and smacked the creature's arm aside before plunging her gladius through it. The creature froze, before turning to golden dust around the weapon. Liz nodded approvingly, then looked back to Willow. "Sorry about all this. Which was actually what we wanted to talk to you about. Is your mother here?"

Willow just gaped at her, making her sigh. "Helen, I think she's gone into shock. Can you find her mom and get her here?"

Helen pointed to the unconscious body of her mother. "Found her. She's here."

Liz smacked a hand to her face. "Could you wake her up and get her off the floor, please?"

"Why do I have to do all the work?" she grumbled but complied anyways. She walked over to the woman, then knelt down and lightly shook her shoulder. When that didn't work, the blonde slapped her face lightly.

Willow's mother bolted upright, eyes flicking around until they settled on Willow and the girl who had fallen down behind her. "Oh, sorry," she said, helping Helen up. "Willow, what happened to the creature?"

Willow, still unable to speak, gestured to the pile of dust on the floor. Her mother, relieved, put a hand over her heart and breathed, then walked over to her daughter and pulled her into a tight hug. "Willow, I'm so sorry for not telling you about all this sooner. I meant to after your sixteenth birthday, but you had so much that you had to do, and I didn't want to add any more to that."

The short girl laid her head on her mother's chest mutely, still not entirely sure if what was happening was real. No words came to her, making her mother sigh. "Why don't we all sit down and talk?"

Once they were all situated on the couch, her mother started her tale. "Willow, I've never told you anything about your father, and there's a reason for that. Your father wasn't actually human."

"What? Was he some sort of alien?" she tried to joke, but it fell flat.

"Remember how I taught you about all the Greek gods?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, your father was Apollo, the god of the sun."

Helen whistled, putting her arms behind her head and leaning back. "Wow, you're just throwing it out there. No buildup at all. Damn, girl."

She glared at the blonde. "You will use clean language in my house." The blonde put her hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm half-god?" Willow asked, disbelief clear in her tone.

"The term is demigod, and yes. I assume you two are, too?"

Liz nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'm a child of Dionysus, and Helen is Bellona's daughter."

Willow's mother nodded. "You can call me Ms. Kate-Evans." She turned her attention back to her daughter. "They live at these camps called Half-Blood and Jupiter, one for the Greek and one for the Roman."

Liz interjected. "We actually have a new one between them called Camp Olympus. It's a joint program, and if you want, you can either go there or to Camp Half-Blood, since you're Greek."

Willow looked between them. "What?"

Her mother sighed. "You can't stay here anymore, Willow. It's not safe for you. They can teach you about your heritage and everything you need to know to survive."

"It's really fun there! You'll get to meet your half-siblings, and the coolest stuff in the world is there. We've got nymphs, satyrs, pegasi, archery which you'll be naturally gifted at as a child of Apollo, and the best food in the world. It's like a summer camp, but year-round for the first year so that you can learn everything you need." Liz put a hand on her shoulder. "I promise that it won't be bad. You can even keep learning everything that you would learn at school if you want, but if you don't, then you can focus on the other things that you want to learn!"

Willow looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. For several seconds, she said nothing, just processing the information. Finally, she met Liz's eyes. "When would I leave?"

Helen spoke up. "Tonight. We need to get back as soon as possible."

Willow nodded. "I guess I'll go pack, then."

Before she got up, though, Liz said, "You can't bring technology. Us using it normally sends out a beacon to things like the blemmyae."

Ms. Kate-Evans stood up. "I'll help you pack, Willow."

In her room, Willow looked around, completely lost. In the span of about an hour, her life had just been completely turned upside-down. Her mom was talking, but she wasn't sure what she was saying. When she noticed that her daughter wasn't listening, she sighed and pulled her into another hug. "I know it seems like nothing is real, but I promise you that everything will be fine. I have some old paper notebooks if you need stuff to write in, and there are more there."

"But what about all my friends?" she mumbled into her mom's shoulder.

"They're not like you, sweetie," she said, rubbing her daughter's back. "Haven't you found it strange that you've never had any close friends despite how long you've known everybody and how nice you are?"

Willow pulled back briefly to glare at her mom. She laughed before continuing. "It's not your fault. Since they're not as special as you, none of them ever truly felt like you fit. At the camp, though, everyone is like you. It'll be a lot easier to get friends, not to mention how many siblings you'll have."

"I don't want siblings," she said. "I like being the only child."

"And you'll always be my only child," her mother smiled. "But I think you'll like your brothers and sisters. Now, do you want the green or the red?"

"Red." Her mother nodded, putting it in the suitcase. For a moment, Willow felt as if everything really might turn out okay.

* * *

 **A/N: This story was actually the first one I wrote, but it came last in the timeline. The reason she seems a little more powerful than other Apollo kids will be explained, and she won't be some Mary Sue, don't worry.**


	8. So It Begins

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Liz sighed. Picking up newbies was always kind of a chore, even if they would grow. If they had the chance. It was shocking that they hadn't found Willow earlier; she should really be dead by now. Seventeen and never encountering a monster? Someone had to be watching out for her. Still, though, it wasn't something that she needed to figure out right now, and she could probably chalk it up to her mother working to mitigate her scent or something similar. It's not like Willow would be able to answer her questions.

She took a look at the girl, sitting on the other side of the chariot that Helen was driving. The two pegasi out in the front were more familiar with the roman girl, so it was safer for her to take the reins. Willow, on the other hand, was staring down into the floor, her arms braced with her hands on her knees and a vacant expression on her face. It was a relatively normal reaction to learning that there's an entire other facet to the world that you've been missing, but it was still kind of boring. Liz liked action. The chariot was enchanted to keep the winds from slapping everyone in the face, so they could actually hear each other and look forward without goggles.

"So, Willow?" She waved her hand once the girl looked up, making sure she had her attention. "Hi. I find that many people have a lot of questions when they figure out, hey, the Greeks and Romans _weren't_ high off their tits when they made all those myths. So, what do you got?"

Willow thought for a moment, making Liz smile. She wasn't one of those that started blurting out half-formed questions as soon as they could. They were annoying. Finally, the rust-haired girl asked, "What are the gods like?"

"Good question. Most of us have no clue. Other than drama queens." Thunder rumbled around them, making Willow jerk around with wide eyes. Liz laughed. "Easy, that's what the gods get like if you diss them. It makes up about eighty percent of our interactions with them. For those of us that have talked to them, which includes my old teacher and most people who have been on quests, they do act relatively human. But there's always some qualities that they either don't care to get right, or just can't replicate them. One of the main ones is introducing themselves. If someone knows your full name, chances are they're either a god or a monster. If they don't have weird physical characteristics that stick out, it's a god."

Liz paused for a moment, in which Helen said, "They don't carry themselves like people either. And mortals either don't notice them or react to them completely different than they would another mortal."

"How?" Willow asked.

"Depends on the god. Mars-"

"Ares," said Liz, getting a mild glare from Helen.

"The god of war," the blonde girl paused to glare at Liz again, who held her hands up. "Makes everyone around him angry and more prone to aggression or fear."

"Aphrodite, as you might guess, makes everyone around her admire her." Liz pulled a cereal bar out of her pocket, peeling off the wrapper. She took great care to make sure that it stayed in one piece and stuffed it in her pocket when done.

"What does Apollo do?"

"According to Percy, he recites a lot of bad poetry and comes up with names that are too cliché to be inconspicuous. He is really helpful, though. He and Hermes are the nicest gods out there. Poseidon too, as long as you're his family or you've done something for him. Otherwise, he's indifferent."

"Who are the worst ones to come across?"

"Hades, Zeus, and Hera." Lightning boomed again, making Willow press her hands against her ears while the other two demigods winced. "Zeus, as the king of the gods, has all powers of judgement. No one can contest him, so he's one of the worst to piss off. Hera is similar, as the queen of the gods, and she can hold some major grudges. Hades, though…"

Liz fell silent, wondering what there was to say about the lord of death. No one in her generation had met the god, but they had of course heard all the stories and myths about him. Angry, filled with hatred for life and demigods in particular, kidnapping Persephone and forcing her to be his wife, but she wasn't sure how much of that was truth. After all, Percy had told her the truth of Hercules, and while she had never asked about Hades, they had all heard of his son, Nico, and she was fairly certain that someone like that wouldn't come from someone who hated life and everything about it.

"Just don't mess with him, okay?" She leaned back. _'Yeah, that's a good answer,'_ she thought. _'Don't tell her he's evil, but also warn her. He has done some pretty shitty stuff in the past.'_ Willow nodded across from her, frowning.

"What does he do?" the rust-haired girl asked, looking at her with her eyebrows drawn together.

"I don't know for certain. Don't believe every myth you hear, but it's generally a good policy to not mess with gods. The god of death is just more vengeful than most."

"Camp Half-Blood dead ahead," Helen yelled back at them.

Liz grinned. Her cabin would want to hear about the adventure. She actually got to fight monsters for once, which was rare with how little the year-rounders left camp. Nowadays, almost everyone was a year-rounder. The few that weren't didn't really attract monsters all too much, so they didn't encounter them too often either.

Helen directed the Pegasi to land next to the canoe lake, galloping along the ground a bit before they could stop completely. There was already a crowd forming, all trying to get a look at the new kid and placing bets on her parentage.

Elliot was standing at the front of the group, keeping those behind him relatively well behaved by shooting a few glares in their direction, even though he too was craning his neck to get a look at the newcomer. His spear was strapped across his back, and he stood with a straight, confident posture. Liz nodded approvingly. It was a good sight for anyone new; they instantly knew who was in charge. Well, relatively. Camp Half-Blood had an odd leadership system, ignoring the fact that the only concrete authority in the camp was Chiron. Mr. D really didn't have anything to do with the demigods if he could help it.

Liz placed a hand on the rail of the chariot, using it to vault over the side. The first thing she did was make her way towards Elliot, asking him, "Any trouble while we were gone?"

"Other than another newbie, no." Elliot smirked at her taken aback expression.

"How the hell did we get another one? We haven't heard of any new demigods in months!" The newbie that Liz brought with her was only just now approaching them, looking around with an open mouth.

"No, we haven't. We've known about this one for a long time; the satyr assigned to him was only just now able to convince him to come here after a run-in with a hydra in his school's cafeteria. Which they were able to kill by themselves." They both started walking towards the Big House, Liz beckoning a wide-eyed Willow to follow them. "Pretty impressive, actually. Not really sure how they did it."

Liz racked her mind for demigods that refused to come to the camp. "Wait, is this the Valentine kid? The one the satyr kept calling a dick?"

"Bingo. Now, you." Willow jumped at being addressed, flicking her eyes over to the slightly taller boy who had poked her. "We're going straight to the Big House over there for your orientation. Don't worry about grabbing your stuff from the chariot, we'll do that for you and bring it to the porch for you to grab after you're done. Have you been claimed yet?"

Knowing Apollo, he had been waiting for a cue. A golden sun bloomed into existence above the rust-haired girl's head, casting a bright light across the entire camp. Everyone who wasn't Willow either turned away or shielded their eyes, some grunting in pain.

A cheer went up from all of the Apollo campers, all of them yelling and clamoring. They started trying to get closer, pushing the other cabins out of their way until Elliot yelled at them. "Back! You'll get her after Chiron! _Back, I say!_ "

Liz snorted, watching them all back up sheepishly. She saw two of them take out sheets of paper and mentally groaned. There were going to be way too many poems and songs to deal with until they calmed down, which would probably be a while, given how long it had been since the last demigod they got.

Elliot grabbed both of their arms, dragging them towards the Big House with a renewed pace. He was grumbling under his breath the whole time, doing his best to shelter his face from the sun. "I'm going to have such a tan tomorrow," he muttered.

Liz slapped his back cheerfully. "Hey, could be worse. He could've made everyone recite poetry or sing for her."

" _Don't give him ideas!_ "

* * *

Willow gulped.

Sure, she wrote plenty of fiction and had plenty of poems of unnatural creatures but being faced with a several thousand-year-old centaur was slightly intimidating. At least she wasn't the only one here.

Sitting on the couch next to her was a blue-haired boy, wearing jeans and a V-neck long sleeve shirt. His arms were crossed, and he was glaring at the other man in the room, a fat man in a leopard-print shirt playing with cards.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," said Chiron, his arms spread wide. "I trust you both had pleasant trips getting here?"

Both fixed him with a flat stare. The centaur coughed, muttering something about manners under his breath. "Yes, well," he started again, "what do each of you know about the Greek legends and myths?"

The blue-haired kid raised his hand. "They're real, we're demigods, and we're here so we don't get eaten by the monsters and the stories. Also, so that the gods can have us run their errands for them." He shot another glare at the man, who still hadn't looked up from his game.

"An… efficient summary. And you?" Chiron looked into Willow's eyes. "What do you know?"

"A lot less than I probably should," she said, her voice meek. A leopard head mounted on the wall caught her attention. She could've sworn it had moved.

It swung towards her and growled, making her try to jump back from the couch end up falling over it. The man threw a piece of meat at it without looking, and it chewed it before swallowing with a satisfied purr. "What the hell?" she yelped.

"Don't mind Seymour," said the man. "He sometimes gets angry when impertinent brats stare at him."

"Who are you, anyways?" Willow asked, cautiously getting back in her seat. She was now hyper aware of all the other seemingly harmless decorations, wondering which would try to attack her next.

"You can call me Mr. D." He lifted a glass to his lips, sipping at the dark liquid within. He frowned.

"…Dionysus?" she asked.

The wine god pressed a palm to his face and sighed. "Names have power, girl. It's best you learn that now."

Willow nodded slowly, making sure to file it away. Advice from a god was probably rare and valuable. "So, what should I be doing?" Her question was directed towards the centaur, who seemed grateful to finally have the conversation back on the right track.

"You two will be watching the orientation video, and then you will be brought to your cabin mates. At dinner tonight, you will be given your schedules, and from then on, you simply follow those. Please ask your councilors any questions you have before coming to me if they cannot answer them. Now, please follow me." The centaur flicked his tail and turned, walking down one of the hallways.

As Willow got up, she found a hand extended to her. Attached to the hand was the blue haired boy, who she found was several inches taller than her. "Valentine Morgan," he said. "It's good that I'm not the only newbie here."

"Willow Kate-Evans," she returned, firmly shaking his hand. "Tell me about it. I think I might have died of anxiety."

"I think I might have tried to break out," he said. They both started to follow Chiron. "I've actually been part of the whole demigod thing since I was twelve, but I never attracted any monsters until now. Thought that I could get away with it and live a normal life, but I guess not."

"I learned about all of this stuff a couple hours ago." Chiron motioned for them to enter a room, which he followed them into. He started tinkering with an old projector, taking something out and putting something else in.

"Yeah, it's a bit shocking. But hey, you'll get it soon enough. I have faith." He smiled at her.

She smiled back at him. "Thanks."

* * *

By the time that orientation was over, the sun was already dipping below the horizon. Only half of it was still left, painting the sky with streaks of oranges, yellows, and pinks. Chiron was leading Willow and Valentine on a tour of the camp, though Valentine had decided to retire to his own cabin for the day, though he refused to tell them which was his.

"And this is the Apollo cabin," Chiron said, gesturing to the ostentatious cabin in front of her. The walls were made of shining gold, with ornate pillars holding up each corner. Willow raised her eyebrows. Chiron caught her look and sighed. "Your father is…"

"Presumptuous?"

"That's one way of putting it," Chiron said. "This is where the tour ends. Your siblings will be waiting inside for you. I hope you enjoy your stay here." He cantered off, leaving Willow staring up at the shining cabin alone.

She took a breath, trying to calm her nerves. Inside were the people that she would spend a very long time with, so it was in her best interests to make a good first impression. If she screwed this up, they might hate her forever, make her an outcast, and it would just get worse-

Willow forcefully cut off her train of thought, shaking her head and whipping her hair about. It was useless dwelling on what might happen. What she needed to do was move forward.

Walking up onto the porch, she stared at the door, wondering how she should greet them. What would she say? Was she supposed to recite a poem? Sing something? Would they force her to shoot a bow, and laugh at her since she had never done it before? Shakily, she raised a hand to knock.

The door opened before her fist got halfway up. The man who opened it was smirking at her. "I was starting to wonder if you would ever knock, or just run away."

Willow tried her best to smile at him. "Yeah, I was, um…"

"Nervous? Don't be. We're all sunshine and rainbows in here." He chortled at his own joke, and Willow took the second to examine him.

A fully-grown adult, the first one other than Dionysus that she had seen. He had blonde hair, blue eyes the color of the sky, tanned skin, and a rather lanky figure. As for clothes, he had shorts and the customary orange shirt that everyone here seemed to wear.

He swung the door open wider, gesturing for her to come in. "I'm Will Solace, by the way," he said as she stepped over the threshold. "Councilor of the Apollo cabin. Also the oldest and handsomest demigod in the camp." He grinned at her, and Willow could've sworn that his pure white teeth glinted.

"Why aren't there any other adults around?" she asked, hoping that the answer was that they left.

Will shrugged. "Some moved to New Rome, a couple help Percy run Camp Olympus, and the rest…" he trailed off, his eyes looking somewhere far, far away. "The rest are in Elysium, I suppose."

Well, at least some of them had just moved away. "I'm sorry," she said.

Will waved it off. "I've had plenty of time to grieve. I miss them every now and them, but I treasure the memories I made with them." He beckoned for her to follow him up the stairs. "C'mon, let's get you a bed."

Walking up the stairs behind him, Willow mentally thanked her father for not making the interior as golden as the exterior. Her eyes might've started bleeding if she had to stare at the gold at all times. "How old are you, anyways?"

Will gave her a grin. "Everything you need to know is in your participant's notebook."

Willow blinked at him. After a second, he cleared his throat, saying, "Inside joke, don't worry about it. Anyways, this is the girl's room. You can choose any bed that clearly has no one already sleeping in it."

Nodding, Willow walked over to on of the beds propped up against the wall. It had white sheets and pillows, just as every other bed did. She put down her bags and suitcase on it, deciding that she'd unpack later. Turning back to Will, she asked, "So, when do I get to meet everyone else?"

"Right now. C'mon, they've been waiting for this."

Will kept talking as he led her back downstairs and into a living area, complete with a stage, microphone, several instruments, and multicolored lights. "Demigods don't really show up as often as they used to, but we also live longer on average, so it's a pretty decent trade-off. Still, it's been five years since we've gotten someone new around here. Don't worry, you're gonna love your siblings."

He gestured for her to sit down, so she chose a reclining chair close to the stage. Willow found that it swiveled, so she spun it back towards the part of the room with seats. Already, the other kids were filtering in, taking random seats in a circle of chairs that they dragged to include her. The first thing that Willow noticed was that they all had different degrees of blonde hair, but golden blonde was the most common. Willow ran a hand through her own rust-colored hair self-consciously. At least some of their eyes were green like hers.

"Alright, everyone, welcome your new sister…" he pointed to her.

It was silent for a moment before she realized that she was supposed to say something. "Uh… Willow Kate-Evans?"

The three boys and seven girls grinned. "Hi, Willow Kate-Evans," they chorused in a deep, slow voice. Willow smiled nervously in return, wishing that she could do something to calm herself down.

"And now we start with the standard get-to-know-you questions. Remember, any questions that you ask, you also have to answer, and that lies are impossible in the confines of the cabin. Now, who has the first question?"

One of the boys, a shorter one with freckles dotted across his face, raised his hand first. "My name is Jacob Smith. How old are you? I'm thirteen."

"I'm seventeen." She got a couple gasps for that, and she reminded herself that most apparently don't last on their own for as long as she had. Another one of the boys put his hand up, and Will pointed to him.

"I'm Michael Carlington. Where are you from? I'm from Eugene, Oregon."

"Savanna, Georgia." She was slowly gaining confidence, now that she realized they all really wanted to know her. Next was one of the girls, seemingly close to her own age.

"Emily Becker. What instruments do you play? I play all the clarinets and saxophones."

"I can play the guitar, flute, violin, and piano. I can also sing."

They all nodded. "Singing and playing the guitar are pretty standard Apollo kid things. So is basic first aid, but you'll learn more about that."

"Can we all glow too?" she asked.

They all looked among themselves, a couple whispering. Will looked taken aback, before he said, "No? I don't think I've ever heard of an Apollo kid glowing. I mean, yeah, Apollo is the god of the sun and light, but that's never really manifested in a significant way with his kids. No, wait, I think we're immune to radiation or something, but that's never really been confirmed. Can you glow?"

Willow tried to concentrate on bringing it out again, sitting in silence for a moment before sighing. "Not on command, but the girl that was with me, what was her name?"

"Liz?" One of them said.

"Yeah, her. She saw it." Willow was worried they believe her, and just write it off. Then Will grinned.

"That's so cool! A new demigod power? You'll be the talk of the camp for months!" He clapped her on the shoulder.

The others all clamored, asking how she did it and if they could learn how to do it too. Willow smiled and waited for Will to calm them all down so she could explain her fight to them.

At the end, Will was grimacing. One of the girls looked slightly disturbed, but the rest were beginning to theorize how she had done it. Eventually, Will motioned for them all to stop. "Alright, kids. It's getting to be late, and Willow hasn't been able to unpack yet. I think it's time that the rest of us go out to the campfire. Which of the girls would like to stay behind and help Willow?"

One of the girls with a pixie cut raised up her hand. "I'll do it," she said, before turning to Willow. "My name is Kara Stirman. C'mon."

The others talked among themselves while Kara led Willow up the stairs to her new bedroom, where they stopped in front of the bed with her stuff on it. The girl looked at Willow strangely. "You sure you wanna sleep so far away from the rest of us?"

While it was true that Willow had preemptively claimed a bed away from the rest, it was done based on the assumption that she wouldn't like anyone else. Now that she had met them, they did seem nice, so she shook her head. "No, I just didn't want to intrude. Where can I sleep?"

Kara directed her to a bed in the more populated area, where she put down all of her luggage. "Where should I put my clothes?" she asked, looking around for some sort of a closet.

"Under your bed is fine. There's a closet back there, though, if you want it. Just be aware that some of us might be wearing your clothes if you do that." Willow silently slid her suitcase under her bed. "The bathroom is over there. Just pick an empty sink and put your stuff around it."

Once Willow had complied and finished marveling at the size of the bathroom, she reentered the bedroom to find Kara sitting on a bed. Willow raised an eyebrow. The girl simply patted the bed beside her in a gesture for Willow to take a seat.

When she did, Kara asked, "So how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine. This is a pretty cool place."

Kara stared at her.

She sighed. "Yeah, okay. My entire world just got flipped, there are a lot of things that I thought I knew that I'm completely unsure of now, and I'm a little scared."

Kara smiled. "That's good. A nice reaction, one that shows a strong, sensible mind. The one thing that I can tell you is that you'll get used to all of it eventually, and that everyone here wants to see you succeed. So, if you need anything, come to any of us. We do have the oldest, most experienced demigod in the camp, so remember that when you need something."

"I do have something to ask. Have any of you met Apollo?"

"Other than Will? No." Kara sighed, and it carried with it a heavy disappointment that Willow figured the rest would find sympathy with. "He sends gifts, sometimes. A music sheet downstairs, a ray of sun that shines particularly bright on us, but that's about the extent of it."

Willow nodded, striking the chance of finally meeting her father off her list with a stroke of bitterness. "I also have to ask, who is Liz? To the camp, I mean. Everyone seemed to look to her."

Kara's countenance brightened, a fact that Willow filed away for later. "She's something of a leader around here. Her and Elliot just kind of… took over. Not in a hostile way, and they're really good at keeping the camp together. It's all really informal. I'd recommend going to Elliot with questions about intellectual pursuits, though. Liz is more partial to working with her hands."

"Is there anyone I need to watch out for?"

"There's one dick in the Demeter cabin, but he'll just throw words. He does it to everyone, we generally ignore him. Also, the Ares cabin tends to be rather pigheaded. But there are few outright bullies here, mostly because they would get torn apart by everyone else, so you don't have to worry about that."

The rust-haired girl nodded and smiled at Kara, saying, "Thanks for giving me some of your time to make sure I was alright. It really helps a lot, knowing that other people care."

"Absolutely. You're probably exhausted, how about we turn out the lights?"

"That sounds fantastic."


End file.
